Sickness
by SettingSunflowers
Summary: This is an old fanfic I started around 3 years ago and actually want to continue lol. The first chapters are pretty small (I only have 6ish pages despite the changes I've made) but hopefully I can make the new ones longer. Also note that the chapters I have edited are still not perfect, with only slight improvements. For the time being I'm more concerned in advancing the story.
1. Chapter 1

Hugo sat in his camper van, sharpening his kukri as well as he could. He sighed as he looked at the picture on his wall. It was him and his 17 year old daughter, Roxanne. She had large blue eyes and red hair. She liked to wear a bow in it, and she was very athletic. Hugo missed her, and especially did after his wife died. But that was years ago. Something else was on the aussie's mind. An incident he had to bear witness to around the time his wife was killed, and his daughter taken away for her own safety. He couldn't remember the details, and nobody seemed to remember anything about what happened that day, but Hugo's constant nightmares always left him trying to pull forward his vague memories of that... thing.

With a growl, Hugo got up and headed into the RED base. He can't think about it now. It wasn't important now, and should never be. For all he knew, he was mixing nightmares with reality.

...  
"Oi, Hugo! Howzit goin'?" Brandon, a crazed scout, grinned as Hugo slumped down in the seat next to him. Brandon frowned when he wasn't responding.

"Yo... HUGO!" Hugo jumped and looked down at the ticked scout. Brandon hated being ignored. Something about his kid hood or whatever. He didn't care to talk about his past.

"What?" Hugo muttered, taking a sip from his coffee cup.

"What's the matter wid you? You're all out in space or somethin'?" Brandon had his arms crossed over his chest and his lip curled into a frown. He shrugged.

"It's nothin' mate. Nothin' at all," Brandon looked unsure but he dropped it.

"I'm lookin' forward to da fight today. You?"

"It's just another fight in my eyes," Hugo responded with a halfassed shrug. He honestly didn't care much about it in the same way the scout did. Today as the annual Saxxy Battle. Brandon always loved it, and almost always kicked ass. Hugo on the other hand, he just saw it as another mission, except you get a golden statue of Saxton Hale.

Pointless really...


	2. Chapter 2

Hugo sat on the roof, shooting another sniper down before running down to a sheltered area. He was wounded a little but he'd be fine after finding himself a med kit.

He managed to find a safe, fairly roomy area in his base. The windows were slightly boarded up, but he could still use his rifle well, and nobody would see him. He pulled a wooden crate over and used it as a seat. Hugo soon shot down several soldiers, a couple of demomen, a heavy and medic in one shot, and lots of scouts plus a spy.

But something was happening while the last few people where shot. Hugo began to notice that his vision was blurring. Confused, he tried removing his sunglass. That slightly worked, but not much.

Hugo decided to ignore it for the time being and just see what could do for now. They had a battle to win anyway, and a party to enjoy later.

...

Hours passed and all seemed fine. Hugo watched Brandon run by, Sorrell behind him. He grinned and shot down another pyro.

Brandon:

Brandon made sure that Sorrell was close by (which wasn't easy, considering the middle aged man was built for ambush rather than speed) and spotted Hugo keeping an eye out for them. The scout was headed to the BLU base so he could capture the intelligence. A RED soldier saluted them as he captured a point at the same time.

Brandon, Sorrell, and Hugo got a lot of respect. They were some of the best, and the team (probably) couldn't go on without all three of them. At least, that was what a lot of them say.

Sorrell was originally on the BLU team, but then the old RED spy somehow died permanently and the medic vanished after going crazy. The new medic was pretty decent himself. He seemed more grounded as well.

Speaking of which, there was their medic now! Bamard Dolphus ran after Brandon and Sorrell as they passed. He also had a lot of respect, due to the fact that he was more kind and social than the last medic. That guy had something wrong with him.  
"I am fully charged!"

"Charge me doc!" Brandon shouted as the trio ran towards a small group of sentries and engineers.

Sorrell cloaked and sapped a sentry as he passed by, while Brandon and Dolphus killed off whatever was in their way.

...  
"Victory," The administrator's voice sighed as if she was bored or tired. The RED team have been winning for far too long.  
The winning team cheered their success and went back to their base to begin drinking, talking, joking about their fights and rough housing. But the heavy who wore a bear on his head and its claws on his fists, noticed that something was wrong. Hugo was missing...


	3. Chapter 3

Hugo:

Hugo's vision had gotten worse in the battle, and his hands began to shake, so he moved on to grab his kukri so he could cut some BLUs down. But before he could even touch his knife he froze. He began to tremble violently and sweat dripped off of his chin and dampened his dark brown hair.

He coughed and tasted blood in his mouth and smelled more in his nose. His eyes burned and his lungs hurt. He toppled over and curled up, eyes fluttering and hands shaking. He saw a slim, blue figure enter the room.  
'Spy...' Hugo glared as he spat out more blood. His ears were ringing so he ddidn't know if the spy spoke or not. But he knew what the spy was going to do.

The last thing he felt was a sharp pain in his side as he sunk into darkness...

...  
Bogdan Vadim (the heavy) tapped the closest mercenary's shoulder, which happened to be a demoman named Duer Hamish who wore a hood.

"Hey Boggy! Come and have a drink with us, why don't ye?" Bogdan shook his head.

"Hugo is missing. We must find him," At this unpleasant news Duer's face went a little pale. Hugo NEVER missed a victory drink.

"We have to find him then! C'mon, grab a doctor and lets go."

...  
Bogdan and the medic he grabbed followed Duer as he ran down to respawn. Once inside the three stopped in front of a terrible scene; Hugo lay curled on the floor, eyes only a crack open and bloodshot. Blood and foam dripped from his mouth and his nose red as more blood spilled out of the nostrils. A wound in his side was still wide open and bleeding immensely, obviously the work of an enemy spy.

But what frightened the mercs was how much their companion was shaking. He just couldn't hold still and he looked as if he was having a hard time breathing, as his chest barely moved at all.

The medic turned to his colleagues, eyes dark and face grim.

"Don't touch him. Get zeh ozer medics and make sure zat zey haf a stretcher and masks over zeir faces and mouths!" He instructed as he himself pulled on a mask over his mouth and nose and the goggles from his messy hair over his eyes. He had no idea what was wrong, but he wasn't going to risk anything if it was contagious.  
Duer and Bogdan nodded and rushed out of the room.


	4. Chapter 4

The RED team was silent throughout the past week. There was one small battle but in was over in less than twenty minutes. The BLUs won at last.

Hugo wasn't doing good at all. He could barely sleep, he couldn't breathe properly and he mumbled complete nonsense most of the time. He could hardly hold still and he felt like he was blind, when really, his eyes kept on rolling back.

As days passed by, Hugo only began to get worse and worse. He began vomiting blood, his skin would split and he would internally bleed. His skin would peel and his bones often popped out of place. The doctors tried to see if respawn would work, but it didn't do anything; he remained ill.

Sorrell, Brandon and the demoman, Duer, often sat and chattered in some random room that was empty. Though their conversations often quickly drifted off. Even if they didn't mention Hugo's current state, they seemed to read each other's minds and sat solemnly for a while.

The coming battles all ended in utter failure, and eventually the administrator was forced to hold off future fights, much to her annoyance. In an attempt to get things done and get the sick red sniper back in the ring, she requested the BLU medics to assist the REDs, promising them a bunch of rare hats as them it was worth the work. Sort of

Now it was only a matter of time.


	5. Chapter 5

"Zis is nozing I've ever even heard of before. I don't know if anyzing can be done," a blu medic sighed tiredly. He had to once again heal Hugo's mysterious injuries. The medics had to do this every few hours, so they had developed a routine where two medics would take shifts looking out for the sniper. The blu's partner, Dolphus, just had to silently agree.

"Hopefully it will be over soon. I don't see how it could get worse."

"He could be possessed," the blu medic tried to joke. Dolphus just rolled his eyes.

"Yeah right. Anyvay, I'm going to grab a drink. Vant one?"

"Sure."

...

"SOMEZING IS WRONG! I REQUIRE ASSISTANCE!"

Dolphus flinched and dropped the cold beer cans on the floor from surprise. It was the BLU medic he had been partnered up with, and he sounded distressed. Ignoring the cans, he dashed back towards the medical room where the sick sniper was kept. By the time he got there, the other medics, all wearing masks and goggles, save for some gas masks, were gathered around a twitching, mumbling Hugo. They all looked uneasy as they stared down at him.

"Vhat happened?" Dolphus squeezed by them as he pulled on his own mask and goggles. He looked down at Hugo and froze.

The sniper's skin had turned pitch black. He had no features to be seen, but the rapid rising and falling of his chest suggested he was in great discomfort.

Hugo turned his head and opened his eyes, which were large white circles. He gasped and tried to sit up, but Dolphus shoved him back down onto the bed, "Don't!"

"H...elp... mee..." Hugo wheezed and weakly grabbed the medic's arm, "kill... kill me... please."

the medics looked at each other, nervous, confused, and some were even afraid. They didn't understand what was wrong, and they couldn't kill Hugo thanks to respawn. At least, it would take a while to deactivate his name, not that any of the REDs would want their teammate gone.

"Vhat is happening to him?" Dolphus looked up at the other RED medic and shook his head.

"I... I don't know..."


	6. Chapter 6

Hugo gasped and wheezed as the medics could only stare from shock. They had absolutely no idea what to do, or if anything could be done at all.

"I can't look anymore," a newer medic on the RED team backed away before running out of the room. A few others followed him, unnerved by how the sniper looked like a charred corpse come to life. The only medic left behind was Dolphus, who was too stunned to move as he stared wide eyed at Hugo. Something in the back of his mind told him that he had seen this somewhere before, but he couldn't put a finger on it.

The sound of cracking jolted him from his trance and he shook his head to clear it. His eyes widened when he looked back at Hugo. The sniper's body contorted, his clawed hands fusing into a singular long blade, as well as his legs. Hugo rolled off of the medical bed, clumsily landing on the tiled floor. His lanky limbs slipped a few times before he managed to balance himself out and turned his attention to the medic, who backed away in fear.

The mutated sniper's lips pulled back to reveal his razor sharp teeth and hissed as he slowly walked towards Dolphus.

"Oh fuck this!" Dolphus turned and ran out of the room. The black creature screeched and ran after him, sparks flying at its every step. Dolphus glanced back only to see the monster quickly catching up to him.

"HELP! SOMEONE HELP ME!"

Dolphus made a sharp turn, planning on reaching his good friend Bogdan's room. The heavy was strong, and surely he could fight off whatever creature the sniper had changed into. He heard a crash behind him and briefly looked back to see that the black spindly monster had crashed against the wall and was skittering over the tiles clumsily. Huh. Could it not make sharp turns? Dolphus grinned. He could probably outrun this thing simply by running in circles.

The creature shook its head, snarling in frustration before continuing after the medic.


	7. Chapter 7

The spy, Sorrell, jolted from his sleep from the sound of screaming. Still half awake, he sat up, rubbing at his eyes tiredly and looked at the door. Was that Dolphus who was screaming? A crash woke the spy completely.

"What the hell?" He frowned as he stood up from his bed and peered out in the hall. His eyes widened when he saw the medic running up the hallway in his direction with a weird, freakish black creature scrambling after him. The spy immediately shut the door and locked it. Fuck that.

Sorrell heard Dolphus run by, along with the screeching of whatever the hell was after him. With a sigh, he went to quickly get dressed and grab his weapons.

...

Bogdan was already armed with his bear claws and standing out in the hall by the time Dolphus reached him, "GET BEHIND ME DOKTOR!"

In which the defenseless medic immediately did, crouching behind the heavy with his arms over his head. His body stiffened at the sound of the creature screeching followed by a crunch and warm fluids splashing onto the German doctor. It was obviously blood, but who's?

Dolphus looked up and his eyes practically bulged from their sockets. The damned monster had pierced through Bogdan's head and throat with one of its scythe like forearms. It slowly pulled its arm out of the heavy's forehead and let the lifeless body drop on top of the medic. Dolphus wheezed under the weight of his deceased comrade, determined not to cry out and catch the creature's attention as it turned away, seeming to have completely forgotten about the Medic it was originally chasing. Perhaps it had a short attention span.

'Damn thing is dumber than I realized. Then again, it was Hugo. Emphasis on _was.'_

Because it certainly was not Hugo anymore.

...

By this point the other mercs had waken up to the chaos that was Dolphus's screaming and Bodgan yelling for him to get behind him.

Sorrell was among the first to see what the monster had done to the heavy, aside from the medic, obviously, as he was still hiding under his corpse. Sorrell wasn't all that disgusted or disturbed from the injury in Bogdan's head, having seen worse as well as been through worse. But then again, he was never killed by a monster.

"Need help getting up?" Sorrell offered a gloved hand to Dolphus, who quickly took it.

"Thanks, Sorrell. I though that creature would get me."

"There's always respwan," Sorrell scoffed. Dolphus slightly ducked his head. That may be true, but death was never fun.

The two turned their heads as they head footsteps rushing towards them. It was the other mercenaries.

"What the hell happened here?" Brandon starred at Bogdan's body in surprise, "Who killed our heavy?"

"Hugo did... sort of," Dolphus scratched his head, "it was him, but it wasn't him either."

"You're making zero sense!" The soldier, Johnathan, frowned and crossed his arms, "either it was him, or it wasn't! It can't be both!"

"Uhm..." The medic looked down, "I... guess it was technically him. But he... he transformed into a hideous creature!"

"Is that why I saw all those medics running into the desert like a munch o' sissies?" Duer blinked. He had gone to get himself a midnight drink when a group of the visiting medics ran by. Originally he laughed at them, too drunk to even think that something was wrong.

"Yes."

Sorrell sighed, "We need to get out of this area and figure out what we should do about Hugo. He is likely searching for his next victim, so we should move silently."

"Yes sir!" Jonathon was immediately shushed by the others as they covered his mouth. Even the loud mouthed Brandon was being more quiet than the soldier. Sorrell just shook his head with a sigh.

"Mon dieu."


	8. Chapter 8

The remaining mercs gathered in the spawning room, hoping to meet up with Bogdan so they could fill him out on the situation. Unfortunatly, their heavy wasn't there.

"Aw, dammit," the engineer, Ricky Maxwell, placed his hand over his face, "I forgot, the timer for respawn now changes at night. Bog's gonna respawn in the morning."

"Seriously?" Brandon looked at the short man with large eyes, "but we need our heavy here! Not dead!"

"Calm down, Brandon. We'll think of something," Sorrell placed his gloved hand on the scout's shoulder, "Since Bogdan is currently out of commission, we must work without him. We cannot sit and wait while that monster runs amok."

Brandon sighed and nodded in agreement, "Alright, fine. So how are we gonna fix Hugo?"

"Zhat will be difficult to figure out," Dolphus mused and scratched his chin, "Perhaps if one of us could get a sample from him, then Max und I could possibly find somezing."

The engineer nodded, "And I think we all know the best person for the job."

Brandon shrunk back as the team turned their eyes to him, "Nuh-uh! There is absolutely NO way I'm doing it!"

Later...

"God damn shit suckin pieces a turds..."

The scout grumbled profanities as he quietly trotted through the hall. He held the medic's ubersaw that he was told to jab Hugo with in order to extract some samples from him. Brandon was told that the monster was fast and dangerous, but it didn't seem to be very clever and could not maneuver sharp turns, especially on smooth surfaces. So long as he could outmaneuver the freak, Brandon should be able to escape unharmed.

Brandon paused at the sound of something clumsily tapping down the hallway in front of him. His heart rate picked up and he sucked in a breath. He could see the skinny quadrupedal creature aimlessly wandering the hall. It wasn't facing towards the scout, so it had yet to notice him.

Brandon waited until it walked into the intel room, where there was more space, before he dashed over to the now startled freak.

Both let out a shriek, one of fear and the other of pain as the scout drove the ubersaw into the black monster's thigh. The dark flesh rippled in a similar way water would when a small pebble was dropped in. Brandon leaped back as a scythe like arm slashed at him. For a brief moment his vision went white as he felt searing pain his left shoulder. Looking at his arm he quickly discovered why it hurt so much.

"ARE YOU FREAKIN' KIDDING ME?" his left arm sat underneath the stumbling creature. Unfortunately, as Brandon was a leftie, he couldn't just run back to Dolphus for healing. No, he would have to grab his decapitated arm, which was still gripping tightly to the ubersaw, and get the hell out of there.

The monster shook its head and hissed at the scout. Brandon internally screamed as he pressed his back against the wall. He only had one shot at this, and if he screwed up he'd be dead till morning.

When the creature lunged forward, Brandon dived underneath it, snatching his arm as he rolled on the ground and quickly jumped back onto his feet.

'Runrunrunrunrun!' Brandon nearly hit the wall on his turn. He was losing a lot of blood, but he would make it back to the others before passing out.

And sure enough, as soon as he returned, the scout flopped face first onto the floor, "...medic..."


	9. Chapter 9

"Brandon!" Sorrell rushed over to the downed scout and picked him up, "You have done well, my friend."

He set him on the bench and pulled the sleeve from his decapitated arm to wrap onto the stump that was left on the scout. Dolphus had gone to retrieve his medigun from his locker and ran back to heal Brandon before he died from the blood loss.

"Remove zhe cloth and hold his arm in place, Sorrell," the spy did just that and soon a red mist flowed from the medigun and surrounded Brandon's arm. His flesh and bone knitted back together, and within moments, there was only a barely noticeable scar where his arm had been severed.

"He'll be out for a few hours, but he should be fine if I keep zhe medigun on," Dolphus sighed.

"Aye. So what should we do in the meantime?" Duer scratched at his sideburn tiredly.

"You," the demoman jolted as the medigun was dropped onto his lap by the medic, "are going to make sure that zhe medicine is doing its job. Max and I are going to examine the sample Brandon got us."

Dolphus took his ubersaw back from the unconscious scout and walked out towards the engineer's lab, where Maxwell was already readying the supplies they'd need.

...

Hugo peeked an eye open. He felt heavy, and exhausted. Slowly, he forced himself up onto his knees and looked around. He had no idea where he was, but the sky was pitch black and the floor a painful bright white. It actually seemed like he was sitting in a large dome with no way out.

"What the hell...?" Hugo stumbled as he stood up. Something about this place was familiar. Had he been here before?

Hugo's frown deepened. Actually, he was sure he had been here before many times. Probably very briefly each time he died in battle. If that were the case, then that would mean he'd never spent anymore than a few moments in this place before respawn revived him, and then he'd forget all about even being there.

As the sniper walked in the large empty space provided, he couldn't help but feel that something was off. This place should be bigger, right? Or was it supposed to look like this? He had no way of knowing for certain, but something told him that this place didn't always look like a small island in a void of writhing darkness.

Hugo had no way of knowing how long he paced around in the white space. There was no clock, no furniture, and no exit. With a defeated sigh he sat down with his arms around his legs as he rested his chin on his knees.

…

It felt like hours passed between the spy, soldier, demo, and the unconscious scout.

"Hey," Johnathan suddenly spoke up, "Where is our pyro."

"Probably still asleep in his room," Duer took a swig from his beer bottle, "He sleeps like a damn rock."

"Yeah…" the soldier scratched at his helmet with a mumble and turned to Sorrell, "spy!"

"What?" Sorrell raised a brow as the soldier addressed him.

"You and I are going to get our pyro out of bed!"

"Why not me?" Duer frowned.

"Because you're busy playing nurse! Now let's go, spy!" He wasn't really giving the Frenchman a choice as he dragged him out of spawn.


	10. Chapter 10

"Pyro!" Johnathan banged on the door of the sleeping mercenary, "wake up!"

"Shh!" Sorrell covered his mouth, "we don't want Hugo to hear us."

"Oh, right."

The spy rolled his eyes and quietly opened the door, motioning John to step in first. The pyro was silently snoring under his blanket. Sorrell walked over to the sleeping mound and shook it.

"Pyro. Wake up," the mound shifted, followed by mumbling. Sorrell sighed and shook the pyro harder.

"Wake u-"

"WAKE UP MAGGOT!"

Both the spy and the pyro jumped in surprise at John's sudden yelling.

...

WAKE UP MAGGOT!"

The spindly creature paused at the sound. It waited a few moments as it detirmined where the shout came from before it bolted down the hall.

...

"Done yet?"

"Mhm."

"Good," Sorrell and John turned away from the wall, which they were asked to look at while the pyromaniac got himself dressed.

"Hmmph hmmphmm?" The pyro's voice was muffled by his mask. Yet despite this, most of the team seemed to at least have an idea on what he was saying.

"Oh, something happened to our sniper and now he's running around as a monster!" The soldier quickly explained, "we figured you'd like to take a shot at him with your flamethrower!"

"Hmph!" The pyro jolted and shook his head. He could never hurt one of his own teammates! Sure, they would respawn, but that didn't mean he should burn any of them intentionally.

John frowned while Sorrell just sighed. He expected the pyro to react like that.

"I don't think any of us want to harm Hugo-"

"I am perfectly willing to punch him," John briefly interrupted.

"Except you," Sorrell cleared his throat, "but there is a high chance we will have to attack him. For all we know, it may be the only way to change him back, which I sincerely hope not."

The pyro's shoulders slightly sagged, but he nodded in understanding and grabbed both his flamethrower and axe that he kept in the corner of his room.

The trio turned to leave when they heard something rapidly scrambling in the hallway. The spy immediately recognized the scraping noises.

"It's Hugo," he hissed through his teeth and pulled out his Dead Ringer, "nobody make a sound."

The other two froze and stared at the door as the scraping grew louder, soon reaching the front of the door before stopping.

"What was-" The soldier was cut off as a black scythe cut into the door and immediately stabbed through his helmet, killing him instantly.

Both Pyro and Sorrell screamed as the monster slashed at the door, easily tearing it apart.

"Pyro, turn on your flamethrower!" Sorrell shouted as he lunged at Hugo. The pyromaniac seemed to hesitate for a moment before he aimed his flamethrower at both the spy and the monsterous sniper.

Sorrell shrieked as the fire burned his back and the monster sliced his stomach open. He fell over dead soon.

The monster screeched as the fire burned it as well and scrambled away from the flames. It's head perked at a loud staticky noise in front of it.

Sorrell closed the Dead Ringer and placed in int his pocket, now holding up his Ambassitor aimed right at the freak.

"Sorry Hugo. It's for your own good," the spy pulled the trigger, and the creature's head flew back. It staggered for a moment before flopping onto the ground motionless.

Sorrell looked at the shaken Pyro and motioned him to follow him back to respawn, where the others were waiting.


	11. Chapter 11

The demoman was struggling to fight off sleep by the time Sorrell returned with Pyro. He looked up and stared at them with his one dark eye for a few moments.

"Where's Johnny?"

The Frenchman shook his head, "Hugo got him. He's dead."

"Oh," Duer frowned and looked down, "damn."

"How has Brandon been doing?" Sorrell changed the subject. The soldier would be just fine in the morning anyway.

"Ach, he's been sleepin' like a baby. I mean take a look at what he's doin'!" the Scotsman gestured towards the scout, who had rolled onto his side and was sucking on his thumb. Sorrell couldn't help but smile.

"He looks better at least. With three of our teammates dead, it would be risky to put the strain on respawn at night. We don't want any permanent deaths anytime soon."

"Aye, that's true," Duer briefly held his beer up in agreement and started drinking. After a few gulps he paused, "wait, three? I thought it was only Boggy and Johnny!"

The spy shook his head, "I managed to kill Hugo. Turns out he's not immune to bullets in the head."

"That's good to hear!" The three mercs turned to see their engineer walking in, followed by the medic, "at least we can take him out if we needed to."

"Yes, but killing Hugo won't fix his problem. In fact, from what Max und I have found from zhe samples, nozing will!"

"Wot?" Sorrell frowned and shook his head, "that's impossible!"

"I'm afraid not, boy. Whatever caused our sniper to change into that thing was infused to his DNA. It's part of him."

"Dammit!" the spy growled. Pyro sagged at the news. Did this mean that they weren't getting Hugo back?

"His DNA, huh?" Duer got up from his place on the floor, "and he has a daughter, right? What if she had some of that? It would be dangerous to just let her run around in the normal world. She'd be taken in by the government to experiment on or somthin'."

"I doubt that. After all, she's under Mann co.'s protection," Dolphus waved his hand, "however, I think it would be best if she was brought here for examination. We need to learn more about Hugo's situation after all."

Sorrell hummed and looked down, "by the way... doesn't any of this feel a bit... familiar?"

The mercenaries looked at him for a moment. they seemed a bit surprised, but yes. This did indeed feel familiar.

"I wonder if this has happened before," Max scratched at his chin, "Like maybe when... his wife died."

Duer nodded, "and his daughter was forced to leave to a foster home."

The pyro mumbled incoherently. Max nodded in agreement.

"Yeah... she didn't respawn either. I don't remember what killer her though."

"And why zhe respawn failed to revive her," Dolphus added.

The remaining group stood in silence as they tried to put together what happened, but none of them could remember the cause of Hugo's wife's death.

...

Hugo let out an irritated growl. He had no clue what just happened, but his forehead suddenly hurt real bad. He almost fell back from how sudden the pain was, it was like he had been shot, but didn't die. Or maybe he was dead. He wasn't sure.

"Bloody hell," he rubbed as his head to try and ease the throbbing pain. Yeah, he was probably dead right now. Respawn was certainly taking its sweet time reviving his ass. He wanted to get out of here, eat some food, take a nap in his bed, put some bloody clothes on. Hell he even missed taking a piss in a jar. It was a stupid thing to miss, but he missed it anyway.

Hugo slightly chuckled to himself as he recalled throwing a jar of jarate at a new BLU spy. Bloody spook looked so mortified when he realized what he was covered in.

The memory quickly faded though, and with that, Hugo sighed. He crossed his arms and let his head fall back as he stared blankly at the black sky. How long? When would he leave? He wanted so badly to be out of this place.

"I want to go back home..."

Hugo flinched when his vision went white. He blinked in confusion. He was suddenly lying on his stomach, on a cold metal floor. He could hear two other voices that he recognized to be the soldier and heavy.

He slowly sat up and looked towards them, only to hear John scream as a pair of hands wrapped around his throat.


	12. Chapter 12

Not all that proud of this chapter, it just seem to drone on a bit. I already know how I want this story to end, but the in between is kind of difficult.

* * *

The respawn room was filled with the confused screaming of the soldier, heavy, and sniper. Hugo was being strangled by John while Bogdan was trying to pry the two apart.

"Stop! Let go," Bogdan smacked John on the head hard enough to knock off his helmet.

"Hey!" The soldier shot the Russian a glare and let go of Hugo to grab his helmet.

the sniper wheezed and nearly fell over as he tried to catch his breath. Bogdan helped steady him.

"Is leetle man okay?"

"Yeah, just... give me a minute..." Hugo coughed a bit and straightened his back, "what happened last night?"

"I do not know," the larger man shook his head. John adjusted his helmet before walking back over to Hugo with a deep frown.

"You," the Aussie flinched when John pointed at him, "you went on a rampage last night and killed Heavy and I!"

"Wh-no I didn't!"

"John," the giant grabbed the soldier's shoulder, "I do not understand what you mean that Hugo killed us. You mean to say that... thing was him?"

"What thing?" Hugo frowned, "the bloody hell are you two even talking about? Last thing I remember I was in the infirmary with all those medics and I was feeling so bad I wanted to die. Then poof! I end up in some weird place and then I wake up here. To be honest it felt like some bizarre fever dream."

Bogdan and John gave Hugo a weird look and jumped when Dolphus rushed into the room.

"Hugo! You're back to normal!" The medic seemed to beam in excitement and relief.

"Wot? If you mean I'm feelin' like my ol' self, then yeah. I fee pretty good."

"No no no! I mean zhat you're human again!"

Hugo stared up at the medic as if he were crazy, and to be honest, he kind of was, "I've always been human, doc."

Dolphus sighed and grabbed the sniper's arm to drag him out, "come on. You and Bogdan follow me."

"I think we should get Hugo clothes first," the heavy stopped Dolphus before he could take the Aussie out of respawn.

"What? Oh. I'm sorry, I didn't even notice, ha ha."

"Whatever," Hugo pulled his arm free. He wasn't very embarrassed about standing around naked, but knowing most of his teammates, it would make them uncomfortable. Especially their spy and scout. He watched as Dolphus quickly ran out to get something to cover the sniper.

...

Dolphus soon returned with the standard sniper attire instead of Hugo's usual Down Under Duster coat. He didn't seem to really give a damn though, and followed the medic along with Bogdan. John went off to have a drink with Duer.

The trio reached Dolphus's infirmary, where the German doctor turned to face his two companions, "so... let me explain what exactly happened..."


	13. Chapter 13

"I was... that..." Hugo stared wide eyed at the medic, who had made a quick sketch of the creature the lanky man had become.

"Indeed. Max und I are still doing some research on the sample Brandon got for us."

"I should... I should go apologize to him," Hugo looked down, slightly swaying on his feet. He had chopped off the poor kid's arm, he deserved an apology.

"Nien. Not yet," Dolphus stopped him, "You're taking zhis a lot harder zhan I figured you would. Are you alright?"

"I'll be fine, just. This feels familiar."

"Da, it does," Bogdan frowned and scratched at his bald head, "is strange, no?"

The medic hummed. It was possible everyone felt like that. But surely at least one of them would remember if something like this had happened before. Hugo figured he was done explaining and turned to leave the infirmary.

"Vait, just one more thing before you go, Hugo."

"What?" He looked back at the German doctor with a raised brow.

"Well, your daughter will be visiting later today. I need to run some tests and I need to be sure zhat whatever changed you isn't in her."

"My..." Hugo's eyes went wide, "Roxanne...?"

Dolphus nodded, "I know it's been quite some time since you've been togezher. Maybe you two can catch up, ja?"

"Yes!" Hugo beamed, suddenly filled with energy. He ran off towards his quarters to get ready and get some breakfast.

...

Sometime that afternoon, a car drove up to Teufort. A young woman in her mid twenties stepped out. She had her bronze red hair tied up in a black ribbon and a simple red T-shirt with brown shorts and running shoes. She looked at the RED building. She was nervous, despite the fact that she was going to see her father after years of being away from him.

She sighed and walked inside. She wasn't here to see her father. The doctor just needed to run a few tests was all.

Seeing Hugo was just a bonus, if Roxanne could call it that.


	14. Chapter 14

"Hallo!" Roxanne was immediately greeted by a grinning Dolphus. Roxanne smiled back.

"Hey Doc. It's been a while."

"you've grown a little since I last saw you," Dolphus placed his gloved hand on her shoulder, "anyvay, come zis way please."

Roxanne nodded and followed the RED doctor to his infirmary. Before they could walk through the doors, Roxanne was tackled by a tall, lanky figure.

"Roxy!" Hugo wrapped his arms around his daughter and lifted her up in a hug. The young woman wheezed as air was squeezed from her lungs.

"Hi dad," her voice came out in a strained squeak. She gasped when her overexcited father finally let go of her.

"Aw, look at you! You grew a bit since I last saw you," Hugo smiled as he looked over Roxanne.

"Barely," she shrugged.

"Perhaps you two can finish zis little reunion later, ja?" Dolphus interrupted, "I have tests to run vith Roxanne."

"Right," Hugo stepped back, "I'll see ya after you're done then."

Roxanne nodded and followed Dolphus into the infirmary.

...

Roxanne found her father sitting outside of the infirmary, half asleep after waiting for more than an hour. The sniper jumped as the door opened and looked at his daughter blankly for a few seconds before he smiled.

"Hey Dad," She pulled a crooked smile, pushing down a wave of fear from Hugo's brief blank stare. A stare she recognized and was haunted by constantly, "How have things been?"

"Oh, you know," Hugo shrugged, "busy, but fun. Last night was pretty weird too and..."

He trailed off, his gaze again becoming blank as he stared at nothing in particular. Roxanne frowned and snapped her fingers in front of his face.

"Dad?" the sniper flinched and looked back at the ex-scout, somewhat dazed, "are you alright?"

"Yeah, sorry about that. It's just that the last few days haven't been the most pleasant and all," Hugo reached under his hat to scratch at his hair, "I got pretty sick. I'm better now though."

"Oh. That's good to hear," Roxann swallowed. She shifted anxiously, which Hugo seemed to miss, "how about we go outside for some fresh air?"

Her father just nodded, "sounds good."


	15. Chapter 15

As Hugo and Roxanne spent time catching up on what they've missed, Dolphus was sitting at his desk with a deep frown. The BLU spy head he had sitting on his desk stared curiously at the doctor.

"So?"

"Zis doesn't make sense!" the medic hissed through his teeth in frusteration, "Roxanne has no mutations at all, which would mean zhat Hugo got it after she vas born, but if zhat were zhe case, zhen ve'd know about it and how it happened. But I have no memory about anyzing zhat vould cause zhe mutation."

"Perhaps it was caused in secret?" The BLU spy suggested, "and for whatever reason, the effects are only showing now?"

"Hmm. Zhat is possible..." Dolphus tapped his chin in thought, "but if zhat vere zhe case, zhen vhy now? Und for vhat reason? Perhaps I should run tests on zhe ozhers. Zhere could also be a chance ve have all been mutated, but aren't showing signs yet."

The spy would've shrugged if he had shoulders. He watched as the RED medic stood up with a tired sigh.

"I'm going to get zhe ozhers," he turned and walked out of his office.

...

"I'm pretty sure we'd all remember if we had our genes mutated," Brandon crossed his arms as he watched the doctor pacing back and forth in front of the team (excluding Hugo and Roxy of course).

"I vas thinking somzing similar, and yet, our sniper is a mutant. Who's to say ve have all been mutated somehow?"

"Even if we've all been mutated," Max butted in, "what are we gonna even do about it? We wouldn't know who to blame."

Dolphus growled if frustration, "no, but I could at least create somezing to nullify zhe effects. Ve don't want mutated versions of ourselves reeking havoc in our own base, now do ve?"

"And what if it's just Hugo?" Duer scratched his jaw, "what then, and why only him?"

"I don't know. I don't have enough information right now," Dolphus ran his gloved hands over his face, "und zere are no records of similar situations zhat I could find. It's as if I am missing a good chunk of my papers."

"Missing papers?" Sorrell raised a brow, "perhaps they were taken?"

"Impossible! I keep zem locked up! Und vhat I found strange vas zhat anyzing connected to or from zhe death of Hugo's spouce is all gone!"

Max's eyes narrowed under his goggles, "that would then mean that somethin' happened that the higher ups don't want us to know about or remember. Come on boys, what happened back then that would cause the Administrator to erase any information connected to it?"

The group was quiet and stared at the ground in deep thought. After a few minutes, even the brilliant medic and engineer were still scratching their head in thought. Until the pyro seemed to perk up with an alarmed yelp.

"What is it Pyro?" Max looked at the pyromaniac with a raised brow. The masked mercenary began to quickly wave his arms as he tried to explain what he just remembered. The engineer's eyes widened a bit.

"Hugo turned into that thing before and killed his wife?" Pyro nodded.

"Gah!" John jumped, "I remember now! He went berserk and attacked everyone! Everyone but the BLU medic!"

"BLU medic? the one that vanished, right?" Bogdan frowned, "he also killed previous spy, da?"

"He and Beth woulda respawned though," Brandon crossed his arms, "so why didn't they?"

"Either it was a malfunction, or some one went and removed their codes," Sorrell mused, "I believe it was the latter."

"But who'd do that?" the scout looked at the spy with wide eyes."

"I can think of who would be crazy and cruel enough to do that," Sorrell's eyes narrowed. The team looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to reveal who might've killed the two mercinaries, and even possibly be behind the whole thing entirely.

"It would have to be the previous BLU medic."


	16. Chapter 16

"You should've seen the bloody spook's face, Roxy! I don't think there are any words to describe it," Hugo laughed as he told his daughter some of the events that Roxanne had missed out on after she had left. The sniper was currently talking about throwing jarate at a new spy, who had clearly never had any interaction or perhaps even knowledge of the jars filled with yellow fluids.

Roxanne chuckled and was about to comment when the current RED scout walked in.

"Uh... hope I ain't interuptin' nothin'," he cleared his throat.

Hugo and Roxanne glanced at each other. It should be obvious, but they just shrugged.

"Nah. What's up, Brandon?" Hugo leaned back in his seat.

"Well, tha others n' I managed to figure some stuff out involvin' what happened last night."

"Oh?" Roxanne raised a brow, "what happened last night?"

Brandon stared at the previous scout blankly for a moment, as if it just then dawned on him that Hugo's daughter was here, sitting right there in the same room he was in. A pretty girl to be exact. A very pretty girl.

"Um... Brandon?" the sniper frowned, "You in there, mate?"

"What? Uh, yeah," the scout cleared his throat, "so, last night. You might wanna talk to Dolphus or Sorrell if you want da details, but basically, Hugo turned into a weird monster and killed a couple of us and cut off my arm. It was pretty crazy, heheh."

"A monster?" Roxanne's face visibly paled yet, neither Brandon nor Hugo knew. Oh no.

"Yeah, it was actually pretty awesome," Brandon laughed, "kinda scary, but the fact we have respawn made it less scary. Not that I was scared. Cause I wasn't."

Hugo rolled his eyes, "Sure you weren't."

"Hey, you weren't there. Well, yeah you were, but you don't remember."

"Whatever, kid."

Brandon frowned and grumbled in irritation, possibly mumbling curses under his breath.

"So, was talking about last night all you wanted to come here for?" the sniper crossed his arms as he starred at the scout with a brow raised, "you said the others found some stuff out."

"Oh yeah!" the young man perked up and mentally smacked himself, "the guy who mutated you was dat old BLU medic! Probably, anyway. Sorrell has suspicions cuz dat guy was pretty crazy. You remember what he was like, right?"

"Yeah I do. He was a bloody lunatic who never did his job. Serious case of a battle medic really," Hugo glanced at his daughter, noticing her face was pale and she was staring down at her feet almost blankly, yet there was fear in her eyes. Her father frowned, "Roxy? What's wrong?"

"What? Uh, nothing!" the ex-scout jumped and shook her head, "I'm ok!"

Both the current scout and the sniper watched in confusion as Roxanne stood up from her seat and walked out, pushing passed Brandon as she went elsewhere, wanting some time to herself.

"What's with her?" Brandon looked at Hugo, who starred blankly at him.

"I don't know."


End file.
